This article is less of a philosophical rant and more of an update on how my play is going, so if you come here for the grand idea stuff, feel free to skip this article.
I've basically come to the conclusion that until we actually get our raiding going (and that's partially my responsibility, as a guild officer,) I've got to use LFR as my main progression path. As I've said before, tanking for LFR can be a pain.
This expansion, I fairly quickly switched Oterro from being a tank back to being dps. I actually originally created him to be my plate dps character to counter Jarsus as my plate tank, but tanking in Wrath was so fun that I wound up making not only my Death Knight, but also my Druid and Warrior (the Orc one - this was before Worgen) into tanks, such that I had a tank of every class.
Oterro was originally Blood DPS, which was the best leveling spec the game's ever seen. This was back in the day when the general impression was that Frost would be the tank spec, based on the original announcement of the DK class. As you may or may not know (I tend to assume everyone played during Wrath at least, but I realize that could be false,) when the DK was first announced, people were still very much in the Burning Crusade mindset, where specific specs would serve specific functions. Back then, Warriors were main-tanks (boss tanks,) Paladins were AoE tanks, and Druids were off-tanks. Death Knights were announced as the "magic tanks," being adept at tanking casters. In addition, the specs had specific functions as well. Blood was the PvE DPS spec, focusing on sustained damage. Frost was the tank spec (with various anti-magic bonuses in addition to higher armor.) Unholy was the PvP Utility spec, with lots of tricks to compete on the battlegrounds. Shortly into the development of Wrath (pre-Beta) they decided to make every spec for Death Knights capable of tanking and doing DPS, the way that Feral Druids worked (in the days before the Guardian spec and the whole talent revamp, Feral druids could assign their talent points differently to serve as better tanks or better melee dps.)
Over the course of Wrath, Blood and Frost tended to be the stronger tank specs while Frost and Unholy tended to be better at DPS. Cataclysm reworked the specs so that Blood became the tank spec, and the others were DPS. At that point, I didn't mind, because I'd already made the switch to tanking (when they introduced dual-spec, I went with Blood tank/Blood dps.)
Anyway, after having about ten decently geared characters by the end of Cataclysm, it's been a bit of a shock to the system to only have really two (I keep telling myself I'm going to gear up my Rogue so that I have someone competent Horde-side.) I wish it were easier to gear up alts, but then again, it might just take waiting for future patches.
Today I got my LFR tier shoulders for Oterro (and a second Shin'ka, which is fine for his tank set but makes me feel like a bad person) bringing him up to iLevel 480, which is the same as Jarsus (Jar has fewer raid drops but more VP gear. He still has a blue sword and shield, but it's not like there are a ton of those in LFR.)
So on one hand, they're both ready to queue for Throne of Thunder when it comes out, but both still have a lot to work on for the Legendary chain.
As I've said, I've been more reluctant to run Jarsus through LFR (he actually still needs the Protectors of the Endless for the Terrace of Endless Spring achievement,) which means that Oterro's actually much farther along his Sigil hunt than Jarsus, needing only 6 sigils of Wisdom (if I get super-lucky, I could technically get them all this week, if I got one from every boss in Heart of Fear.)
I've never actually done a Legendary chain before - I started raiding in Wrath, and back then Legendaries only came in 25-man raids - not to mention that Shadowmourne was a dps weapon, and while technically I could argue that Oterro could use it as a tank, it's a moot point, because we're a 10-man guild (I actually miss 25-man being tuned harder and granting better gear, because it meant that 10-man was easier.) Even if we had been seriously raiding in Cataclysm (we did finish BWD, to be fair) the Legendaries there were for Casters and Rogues, and as cool as Darsino is, he's Horde, and thus is strictly LFR-only.)
So currently what I've got to do is religiously run Heart of Fear on LFR (and Terrace, of course) every week. Then there's the issue of reputation. I waited to grind reps on Oterro mostly until after getting the Grand Commendations. The result is that I actually wasn't quite honored when I was done with them and started on Shieldwall. Oterro's already revered with them, so when I do actually get to the second stage of the Legendary quests, I'll presumably have to grind rep by killing Horde in Krasarang. Oh well, at least there's no daily limit on that.
Last bit of news: I finally got into the Brawler's Guild (on Oterro - I'd originally meant to do so on Ardten, but I don't think he's geared enough for it, and I just happened to get the invitation while on Oterro.)
Bizmo's Brawlpub is, of course, a really cool location (SO much better than the Brawl'gar Arena) and the fights in the pit are pretty cool - really designed as solo boss fights. I'm sure some classes have an easier time on them than others, but there's some fun little strategies.
You do get a fair amount of gold for a short amount of time down there, but gold is of course not a huge incentive these days. It would be cool to get a set of transmog gear or a title, or even get some kind of power-level reward. I'm currently rank 3, so I'm not sure what happens when you finish all the fights. It is a pretty small feature, for all the hype that it got, and while it's enjoyable, I think they're going to need to do some serious re-working to keep it as a relevant feature in future expansions.
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